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Just a disclaimer about the reviews that I post on this blog: I don’t do paid reviews. All reviews are done pro bono and reflect what I really think about the product. That being said, I usually don’t write reviews about products that I don’t like. It’s just a personal preference. Again, all review posts are NOT paid posts. Read more about this in my About page.

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Ink Swab: Pilot Iroshizuku Yama-Guri (Wild Chesnut)

As I mentioned in my last post, at first sight I thought this ink was black, since I don’t know the meaning of all the Japanese names of Iroshizuku inks. The brown on the label and the box is just so dark, it could pass for black. A quick swab proved me wrong, though.

I loooove Iroshizuku ink bottles. I think they’re fabulous and not boring at all. It speaks of the care and thought that goes with packaging a product that the Japanese are very well-known for. It gives you a feel of the old world perfectly blended with the new. #fangirlmoment

On to the ink! I love brown inks. I am very partial to brown and green inks, but if I’ll be stranded on an island with only one color of ink, it would be brown. Which explains why I have a lot of brown inks in my stash. It’s hard to imagine that I didn’t even know this many shades of brown existed before May last year! Of course, not all shade of fountain pen ink may be suitable for daily writing. Work requires a bit more conservative colors. Yama-Guri is the perfect ink for daily writing. It’s that ink you use when you really want to use brown ink (or prefer not to use blah-ck) but you don’t want people wondering why your signatures and notes are the same color as their flower pot.

Yama-Guri is a very conservative brown-black, with a few undertones of purple. It’s close to the color of Diamine Macassar, except for the purple shade in it. It does look like the outer shell of a wild chesnut. (It’s also a perfect match in shade and in flow with my TWSBI Micarta. Sigh. ❤ )

It’s a rich brown color with beautiful shading. The color range for the shading is dark brown to darker brown, so it still manages to look very conservative despite the shading of the ink.

It dries relatively fast, 15 seconds on an average and is a bit water resistant. Like my other Iro ink, this one performs perfectly. It’s a very well-behaved ink. It flows wet even in fine nibs, does not nib creep, and it’s so smooth that it feels like I’m writing with a lubricant rather than fountain pen ink. It’s highly saturated without being stubborn to clean off.

The color also doesn’t change much when it dries. It retains its vibrant color and beautiful texture. If anything, the brown becomes a bit more deeper than when it was wet.

Overall, it’s a wonderful addition to my brown ink collection. I don’t think I’ll ink the TWSBI Micarta with anything else in a long time.